Earlier this week, I posted a write up about the street art scene in the East Village and the Lower East Side. I talked about the difference between graffiti (ego driven, inward thinking) and street-art (enhancing the vibrancy of an area, outward thinking), and how street-art has helped those two particular areas evolve into the trendy, hip neighbourhoods they are today. As I learned during my tour, not all street-art is easy to spot, but armed with an open mindset and a curiosity to explore, you’ll start to notice things you hadn’t before and you’ll begin see things in a new way.
Below are more photos from my time in the East Village and Lower East Side, plus two final photos from walking the Highline in Chelsea.
Since these shipping containers had been left behind after some construction work, an arts group in the area decided to transform them into something more appealing.In the heart of Alphabet City (Avenues A, B, C, D) at the corner of Avenue C and East 7th Street.Adam Yauch 'MCA' of the Beastie Boys gets immortalized on East 7th Street in the East Village. Artist: Cram ConceptsRe-purposing an old payphone.Street-art on wheels.The student-created mosaic displayed on the exterior of P.S 15, The Roberto Clemente School, depicts local community sites. We're now entering the Lower East Side...A birthday mural by "The Mural Kings", Tats Cru.
And check out this video showing how Tats Cru put the birthday mural together:
This type of street-art is called wheatpaste. The image is drawn before hand and then pasted wherever the artist chooses. In this piece, the Statue of Liberty drinks the Kool-Aid. Artist: GilfAnother wheatpaste piece by artist Elle. This one-of-a-kind image is hand drawn and coloured with paint.As seen along the Highline at West 30th St, this is one of the images from the "Inside Out Project" by French photographer JR. His series of images can be found around Manhattan and depict Native Americans from the Lakota tribe.Further down the Highline at West 25th St, Brazilian street-artist, Kobra, pays homage to the iconic 1945 photograph "V-J Day in Times Square" by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
